Art Therapy: Wine and Canvas

Dear Readers,

I heart art. Seriously, I love it. I loved it as a kid, and I appreciate it as an adult. As a future therapist, I look forward to encouraging patients to learn its therapeutic powers.

So, when I was offered the chance to attend a Wine and Canvas event...I was all over it.

Being a fan of fun: I knew this was the right event for a couple of girlfriend bloggers and I to spend an evening creating masterpieces...and then sharing our story with the world (via our blogs.)

This is my part of our story:

Information:
Wine and Canvas is just want it sounds like: Drinking while painting.

More Information:
I have a group of girlfriends, that also blog, and are fans of fun...That decided they would like to partake in the wine and canvas-ing. And then blog about it.

So we partook.

And we had a blast.

(Insert randomness: We learned about the event without enough time to find a beret...OR grow a thin mustaches...Which is exactly what I think of when I think of being an "artist"...beret's and thin pencil mustaches...Guys, just go with it. I'm sharing my thoughts. These are my actual thoughts....)

Additional Information:
Wine and Canvas is held in different locations each week. The event runs about 3 hours. All art materials and a smock are provided. You can drink whatever you would like. I drank water with a lemon (because I like to party.) The class is taught by a professional. The professional artist makes it seem as easy as painting by numbers. Anyone can attend. We went with a group of girls. There were also couples, guys, and adults of all ages and artistic abilities.

At any rate, the girlfriends that attended this event with me wrote AWESOME blog posts describing the event in detail. And it would be a dis-service not to share those writings with you. At the bottom of this post I will attach their blogs. Please read. After reading them you will learn more about Wine and Canvas and just how much fun it is.

What I'm going to talk about was just how THERAPEUTIC it was.

Why am I talking therapy? Well, because one day I will be a legit Therapist and therefore, therapy is very near and dear to my heart.

Some of my grad school classes have focused on alternative forms of therapy. Art therapy being one of them. And to summarize 1000's of pages of things that I have read on the topic of art therapy:
It's effective. It's fun. And it unleashes your inner child.

At some point in our childhood, we all attempted doing something creative and artistic. We all finger painted, or colored, or made things with toothpicks.

And then at some point we stopped.

We stopped because someone told us we weren't good at it. Or we felt we weren't good at it. Or society as a whole said that art isn't something that adults do.

Adults: get jobs, are serious, and only do things that they are good at.

At some point we stop finger painting and learn how to use excel spreadsheets.

We stop being creative because we need to pay the bills.

We stop being artistic.

We stop having fun.

But can't we be adults and still have fun??

YES.

Wine and Canvas is an outlet for adults to be adult-like...but still have fun.

Wine and Canvas will succeed because it takes us back to our roots. Our childhood.

Is it fun to drink wine and paint? YES. But it was more than that.

It was therapeutic.


It was a way for us to be creative.

It was a way for us to do something that excited us.

It was a way for a group of adults to have an outlet.

It was a way for us to build our friendship and bond.

It was a way for us to see ourselves not so seriously.

It was a way to relax and unwind from our busy lives.

It was a way to see ourselves in a different light.

It was a way for us to share stories of our artistic youth.

It was a way for us to giggle like kids for hours.

It was a way for four friends to create art that will forever be cherished in our homes.

It was a way for us to see each other in a different light. Never before have we all hung out and painted with each other. It opened doors of discussion that years of friendship and talking about our lives never would have. It gave us a new perspective on our friendship and invigorated the kid inside each us. It gave us something tangible that we could always hold onto after the experience is long and gone.

It was a way for us to blog about a shared experience in four different ways.

This is my blog and this was my take on the event. My take is that it was extremely therapeutic and brought me back to my childhood. It made me want to be more creative. It made me look at life though the lens of a child...With a world of possibilities. Am I the next Picasso? Probably not. But, I can have fun trying.

This is my blog and this is my story.

Here are their blogs. Here are their stories:
Des Moines Good Eats
A Little Pink in the Cornfields
Angie's Musings

Attend a Wine and Canvas event and create your own story. 

The Website for Wine and Canvas is: http://www.wineandcanvas.com/
If You "Like" their Facebook Page You Can Learn About Their Events and Specials.

Forever Trying New Things,
Miss Oakley

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